Francisco Trinaldo won twice under the Dirty Boxing Championship banner and now wants to chase a big fight with the co-owner of the promotion Mike Perry.
A 47-year-old veteran with 26 appearances under the UFC banner over more than a decade, “Massaranduba” won three straight since leaving the UFC in 2022, scoring a bareknuckle MMA win over Sasha Palatnikov in 2024 before back-to-back DBX victories earlier this year.
With past wins over the likes of of Paul Felder, Jim Miller, King Green and John Makdessi in the UFC, Trinaldo has made it clear that his desire is to face “Platinum” for his “King of Violence” title in BKFC.
“Bareknuckle boxing is also interesting because it’s a promotion for MMA fighters,” Trinaldo told MMA Fighting. “My goal is to fight Mike Perry down the line. He’s saying there’s no one to beat him? I think there is. He’s fought some good guys, right? He’s done well.”
Perry is unbeaten in six matches under the BKFC banner against Luke Rockhold, Jeremy Stephens, Eddie Alvarez, Michael Page, Thiago Alves and Julian Lane. Trinaldo said he really enjoyed competing under DBX rules and wants to capture the welterweight title.
“I’ll win the belt [at DBX] and then go to [BKFC] and challenge him,” Trinaldo said. “He knows that. I told him in person, that I want to fight him. He owns [DBX], him and Jon Jones, and I’ve told him, ‘We’ll meet one day.’ And he just smiled, said I’m a good fighter. He was all dressed up nice so I won’t cause a scene at his event, but I’ve already told him that in person.”
Trinaldo revealed he’s currently a free agent after his recent bout and isn’t interested in signing an exclusive deal with any promotion at age 47. Instead, he wants to chase good competition to prove his worth — and hopefully set up the BKFC clash with Perry.
“Massaranduba” said he’s not done competing in MMA either but it’s been “quite hard” getting fights. Trinaldo won five of his past seven in the UFC between 2019 and 2022 and hasn’t fought in the sport since, and said he was approached with offers to face Damir Ismagulov in Russia but “they cancelled it when they heard I’m still doing great in the gym.”
“My fuel to fire, to tell you the truth, is my boy,” Trinaldo said. “I want him to watch me fight [MMA]. He was too young when I was in the UFC, and now he’s 8. I’m fighting for him, so he sees what’s like. He gets excited and asks me a bunch of questions. I’m like, ‘You have to train hard to be better than daddy.’ [laughs]. But he says he’ll be better than me.”
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